Hi all, I am joining this forum with the hope that it grows substantially; I am a refugee from another major hockey forum that was very poorly moderated, has a large number of immature idiots and I hope goes bankrupt. My ID on that site was "nystromshairstylist", which I will retain here as well.
Anyway, even though I'm an Islanders fan I chose not to watch game #4 as I knew the result; the team never seemed properly prepared for this series. The Canes were not the most talented team, and were without their entire second line and starting goalie, and the NYI still could not put together a solid effort.
They lost this series for a confluence of reasons, but while I am happy Trotz got them into the PO when I expected they'd finish in the bottom 3-4 teams in the league, last year was the first time he'd ever been past the 2nd round of the playoffs. Yes he won the SC, but that was with a stacked team of hall of famers and all stars, which admittedly the Isles are no where close to at this time - but neither are the Canes. The rosters as they stood at the beginning of the series favored the Islanders, who IMO played well below their potential, which must go on the coaching staff.
All in all, a great year, but they need to get absolute garbage like Hickey and lazy, low effort players like Nelson off the roster, and replace them with hungry, aggressive and talented younger players like Wahlstrom, Bellows, etc.
Hopefully, they can build on this season, make some desperately needed roster changes, and continue to show progress in the coming years.